CLF 2005 Seminar Series- September 14, 2005
SPEAKER BIO AND LECTURE ABSTRACT
 Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., M.Sc. is a pediatrician and the Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
Dr. Landrigan obtained his medical degree from Harvard in 1967. He interned at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital. He completed a residency in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston. He obtained a Master of Science in occupational medicine and a Diploma of Industrial Health from the University of London. From 1970 to 1985, Dr. Landrigan served in the United States Public Health Service as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and medical epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control. He has been at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine since 1985.
Dr. Landrigan is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has chaired committees at the National Academy of Sciences on Environmental Neurotoxicology and on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. The report on pesticides and children’s health was instrumental in securing passage of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, the major federal pesticide law in the United States. From 1995 to 1997, Dr. Landrigan served on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veteran’s Illnesses. In 1997-98, Dr. Landrigan served as Senior Advisor on Children’s Health to the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and was instrumental in helping to establish a new Office of Children’s Health Protection at EPA.
Children’s Health and the Environment: The Problem and the Solution Children are quantitatively and qualitatively different from adults in their susceptibility to chemicals. The principal quantitative difference is that children are disproportionately exposed to toxic chemicals. They drink more water, eat more food, and breathe more air pound-for-pound than adults, and also they crawl on the floor and put their fingers in their mouths. The qualitative differences reflect the unique biology of early development. The incredibly complex and closely choreographed processes of child development – in utero as well as postnatally – create windows of exquisite vulnerability to chemicals, as was exemplified by thalidomide, DES, lead, and the fetal alcohol syndrome. Prevention of such tragedies is possible only by understanding the hazards that chemicals pose and then acting, when necessary, to prevent exposure. Children today are extensively exposed to synthetic chemicals in the environment. More than 80,000 chemicals are registered for commercial use with EPA, most of them newly developed since the 1950s. More than 2,800 of these compounds are produced in quantities of more than 1 million pounds per year [high-production volume (HPV) chemicals]. HPV chemicals are distributed widely –in air, food, water and consumer products – and recent national surveys demonstrate that they are widespread also in children’s bodies. Fewer than half of HPV chemicals have been tested for potential toxicity. Fewer than 20% have been tested for their potential toxicity to early development. Evidence is growing steadily that toxic chemicals – air pollutants, pesticides, solvents and metals – contribute to causation of the chronic diseases that today are the principal causes of morbidity and mortality in American children: asthma, cancer, birth defects and neurodevelopmental disabilities. To protect children against environmental toxins and disease of environmental origin, we need a multi-pronged national strategy. We need to insist that chemicals be tested for potential toxicity before they are brought to market; the current uncontrolled exposure of children to chemicals of unknown hazard cannot be allowed to continue. We need research - in the recently established federal network of Children’s Environmental Health Research and Disease Prevention Centers and also in the National Children’s Study, a prospective epidemiological study that will follow 100,000 children from conception to age 21 to identify environmental threats to health. We need to train the next generation of leaders in environmental pediatrics. We need strong, protective, and enforceable governmental policies that recognize the unique vulnerability of children and that emphasize prevention. We need to educate parents and all who care for children about how they can take action to protect the next generation and preserve America’s future.
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